Jayme Metzgar
Founder & President

Jayme founded Romania Reborn in 1998, after spending a year in Romania as a short-term missionary. She has served as president of Romania Reborn since its inception, working from home and traveling to speak at churches and missions events. A homeschooling mom of four, Jayme is co-author of the book The Homeschooling Mother: A Mom Just Like You. You can find her writing on religion, culture, and politics at The Federalist, where she is a senior contributor. Married to Todd since 2000, she and her family live in West Virginia.

Michelle Essex
Executive Director

Michelle likes to say that God had a much bigger imagination for her life than she did! After graduating from Virginia Tech and receiving her MBA from University of Richmond, God sent Michelle to Africa, where she taught college and did consulting work. Soon after returning to the States, Michelle knew that God was leading her back overseas to East Asia, where she would serve the Lord teaching college and working as the treasurer of a small non-profit company.

In 2009, God changed Michelle’s call to marriage to Steve Essex and his four children. Today, Michelle is passionate about seeking the Lord’s face at Romania Reborn, enjoying life with her husband and family, and seeing God move in the lives of Christian brothers and sisters!

Debbie Stevenson
Administrative Consultant

Debbie has been involved with Romania Reborn since it was a “dream” of Jayme Metzgar’s called Regeneration Ministries. Her trip to Romania in 2000 with a team led by Jayme solidified her desire to financially support and pray for this ministry. After retiring from her church administration job in 2017, God has been leading her to serve in His kingdom in many other ways, and now Romania Reborn administration is the latest adventure. She has lived in Virginia since 1980, serving her Lord through Christian ministries.

Jeanne Domenech
Treasurer

Our bookkeeper and Treasurer for Romania Reborn since its inception, Jeanne Domenech continues to have a profound interest in the needs of abandoned children. She has four grown children, one of whom was adopted domestically. She resides in Alexandria, Virginia, with her husband, Doug Domenech, who works for the U.S. Department of the Interior.

Corina Caba
Founder and Director Of Hope House Family Center

Our lead social worker and Romanian staff director founded Hope House Oradea in 1996. This family center serves as the headquarters of all our adoptions, foster care, aid to impoverished families, long-term care for graduates from state orphanages, and help for biological families to prevent abandonment. Corina’s favorite portion of her work is, “seeing the children's eyes full of love and hope, after they are where God intended for every child to be: in a safe and loving family.”

Andreea Laslau
Child Psychologist

Dana Chirila
Social Worker

Lidia Drugas
Secretary